5 Uses for Your Old iPad

When you upgrade to a new iPad, you’re left with your old one that you may not know what to do with. Here are five clever uses for an old iPad to give it a new lease on life.

If you upgraded to the iPad Air 2 or an iPad mini 3 back in October and still have your old iPad hanging around collecting dust in your desk drawer, you can put it to good use doing other stuff. After all, an iPad can serve other purposes besides just being a device to play games on and surf the web.

Selling an old iPad can be a good way to go, as it will put some extra cash in your pocket after you spent all that money on your new iPad, but going through the hassle of selling an iPad isn’t something that a lot of people want to deal with, so instead, they usually just keep their old iPad hanging around.

However, instead of keeping it hidden in a drawer, dust it off and use it for something productive. After all, you paid for it — might as well get your full money’s worth.

Here are five uses for your old iPad that might have not thought about.

In-Car Entertainment System

If you have the DIY skills, you can integrate an old iPad into your dashboard and use it as an in-car entertainment system. Fill it up with your favorite music and even use it for GPS and navigation if it’s a WiFi+data model.

You can easily buy a dash mount for your iPad or you can get creative and work it into the actual dashboard to cut down on clutter. The latter will require more skills, but if you can do, that’s really a great way to go in order to improve the interior of your vehicle.

Remote Control

If you have a lot of remotes in your house, why not replace all of them with your old iPad?

Apple has its own Remote app for the Apple TV and if you buy the hardware, you can control your television and the entire home entertainment system using Logitech’s Harmony Hub.

Furthermore, you can even control your lights and other appliances around the house using your old iPad, as Philips Hue lightbulbs can be controlled from your iPad, and if you have Belkin WeMo products, it’s pretty much limitless as to what you can control around the house using your iPad.

Standalone Clock

This is less of a useful purpose for an old iPad, but it can give your desk some pizazz that might have been otherwise lacking. Turning your old iPad into a standalone clock is a nifty way to tell the time.

Alarm Clock Pro by iHandy is a nifty clock app that you can install on your old iPad. It provides you with a digital clock interface that stays on until you shut it off, and obviously includes alarm functionality, allowing you to wake up to your favorite music rather than using the built-in tones. Plus, at only $0.99, the app is steal if you’re looking for a desktop clock.

Furthermore, you can use the built-in Clock app in iOS, which comes with the ability to show the time from locations around the world, as well as a timer and a stopwatch that you can use for board games and such — the larger screen will allow players around the table to easily see it from a distance.

Second Monitor

Perhaps the best use for an old iPad is to use it as a second monitor for your computer. If you have a 13-inch MacBook but are wanting more screen real estate, take that old iPad and give yourself a second monitor by hooking it up wirelessly to your MacBook or plug it in directly using Duet Display.

Duet Display works with both Lightning and 30-pin connections, so your old iPad is sure to work, just as long as it’s capable of running iOS 5 or later.

Give It to Someone

In the end, if you can’t think of a reason to keep your old iPad around and the above options don’t really interest you, then perhaps give it to someone who would actually put it to good use.

Of course, not many people would use an old iPad, as they probably already have a newer device that they use as their daily driver, but there’s probably someone in your family or your circle of friends that could benefit from your old iPad, whether their’s broke and they need a replacement, or if they can’t afford to get a tablet in the first place.

Someone who’s lucky enough to get a free iPad (no matter how old it is) will surely be grateful for your generosity.